Number of Syria refugees in Lebanon tops 625,000 , UNHCR

Beirut, – Over 625,000 Syrian refugees are receiving aid in Lebanon, the UN refugee agency has said.

With the recent increase of 13,000 registered Syrian refugees with the UN office in Lebanon, the number of registered refugees is now more than 530,000, Xinhua cited the UNHCR as saying.

Over 95,000 refugees are still waiting for their registration process to be completed.

Lebanon has called on the UN Security Council and international donors to help it bear the burden of hosting the Syrian refugees, whose number may hit one million by the end of this year.

UNHCR chief Antonio Guterres said last month that the number of Syrian refugees in Lebanon had surpassed 25 percent of its own population and was inflicting a huge burden on the Lebanese government and people.

Lebanon’s ambassador to the U.N. told the Security Council last Tuesday that the actual number of Syrian refugees in Lebanon is estimated at 1.2 million , which represents one quarter of the Lebanese population.

Addressing the US representative at the UN , Dr. Nawaf Salam said:
“Madam President, it’s as if your country, the United States of America, were going to have an influx of 75 million refugees,” Salam said. “Could you imagine the impacts of an influx of such magnitude on your country?”

While Lebanon has a population of just over 4 million , the US has a population is 314 million

Xinhua